Objectification theory explains that sexual objectification of women plays a key role in the development of mental health problems that inordinately affect women. In today’s world, women are well aware that there is always an exterior view on their appearance due to advertisements attracting attention to female bodies in order to sell a product (Stankiewicz). The treatment of women as objects rather than people, particularly in advertisements, is dehumanizing. The bitter truth is that women are stripped of any individuality and are depicted in the media as not human – often in ads that exclude their faces, isolate their body parts, or even substitute inanimate objects for parts of their bodies – all in order to appeal to the views of our male-dominated ad industry. Consequently, women begin to internalize these exterior views and assess their own appearances from the eyes of a third party. Self-objectification goes into effect when a woman treats herself as an object to be evaluated based on her physical attributes as opposed to her intrinsic values or personality.

Caroline Heldman is an advocate for drawing attention to how the media portrays women. In her TED talk, “The Sexy Lie,” she explains that when we view ourselves as sexual objects (self-objectification) we engage in habitual body monitoring. We constantly think about the way our legs are crossed, which lighting makes us look more appealing, who is looking at us, and the way our hair is positioned. She says, “in the 5 minutes I’ve been giving this speech the average woman has engaged in habitual body monitoring 10 times. That is every 30 seconds.” (Heldman)

Some major effects of self objectification are a woman’s increased anxiety about how her body will be evaluated, a diminished awareness of inner physical sensations like hunger or sexual arousal, increased feelings of body shame, and a large risk of developing mental health issues such as eating disorders and depression. In ads where women are sexualized and objectified, oftentimes a narrow and unreachable standard of beauty is shown. An average US woman is 5’4” tall weighing 140 pounds; the average US model is 5’11” weighing 117 pounds (Strickland). Over time this has caused a greater importance to be placed on appearance to define someone’s worth rather than their underlying human qualities (Szymanski). Self-objectifying women compare their bodies to the unrealistic ones they see all around them, and then ultimately have feelings of negative self worth when they come up short.